Antojitos – “Little Cravings”

Remember when you were a teenager and you would get together with your friends and raid your parent’s kitchens, starving to death? This was one of the first “from scratch” type of recipes that I ever made by myself and all of the credit for it’s invention goes to my friend Claire.

Claire’s mom, bless her heart, would let us take over the kitchen in their farm house and cook while we gossiped. I can’t even imagine giving two tweens complete control over my kitchen! The snack that I always requested that we made was a variation of this recipe. Over the years I’ve changed it to the tastes of my family and it is something that we have at least twice a month, if not more.

We have always called them “Antojitos” and when I went to double check the definition before posting this, I found that Wikipedia calls them “little cravings” which seems to perfectly sum them up. These mini taco treats are definitely worthy of cravings!

In our family, we’ve added taco meat, finely chopped onions and peppers to the recipe so that it is more filling (to get the perfect mini chop I use the Vidalia Chop Wizard). We like to eat this on a Friday night with some rice and beans or on the weekends as something to munch on while watching football. It is also the perfect little appetizer for a party or potluck to stand out from the same old potato salad.

Now, you don’t have to cut the tortillas into perfect little circles!! Honestly, I only do this when I am making it for company. For my family, I just take a large tortilla and cut it into sixths. Cutting it with pointy edges will make the sides crispier, but we like it that way. Either way you cut them, as long as they fit in the muffin tins, you’re good to go! Speaking of muffin tins, I just got a new metal set, but in the past I’ve always been a huge fan of the silicone muffin pans because everything just “pops” right out of them (the link is to my favorite ones).

After you have them cut however you fancy, add the meat mixture, black beans, a spoon full of salsa or whatever combination you choose! That’s the best part of these, the filling is completely flexible.

Then my favorite part, add cheese! I don’t know about you, but around this house, cheese is a way of life. In the beginning of dating, there was a scare that I might have to give up cheese and my man seriously considered sending me to some sort of rehab, because life without cheese wasn’t life at all.** So, we add a lot, and we like Sharp Cheddar or Colby Jack, but use whatever sounds good to you!

Antojitos “Little Cravings”

Ingredients:

1lb ground turkey or beef

1 pack taco mix

1 medium onion diced small

1 bell pepper (any color) diced small

6 large burrito tortillas

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

¾ cup salsa

5 cups fresh shredded cheese

2 tomatoes diced

Sour cream

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Place ground meat in large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Break apart the meat and sprinkle with the dry taco mix. Brown and drain grease. Add onion and pepper in the last minute or two of cooking to soften. Remove from heat.

Place stack of tortillas on cutting board. Place glass on it and cut circles around using knife (or cut the large tortilla into 6ths if you don’t care if it looks fancy). Push tortilla pieces into individual muffin tins like little cups. Layer ingredients in the tortilla cups: 1 Tbsp ground meat, 1 tsp salsa, 1 tsp black beans, cover with cheese.

Place in oven for 10 minutes until cheese has melted.

Serve topped with tomatoes and sour cream (or jalapenos)

** I found this on the internet the other day and it perfectly sums up how strongly we feel about cheese around here